Cowan to Berowra (Great North Walk)

A short but challenging walk between Cowan and Berowra railway stations, via Berowra Waters and through a number of valleys.

I’m taking a few of our Cubs Scouts on a bushwalk, and they’ve proposed Cowan to Berowra as the walk they want to do. We’re off relatively early in the morning, so we can make the planned rendezvous with our Support Crew at Berowra Waters for a BBQ lunch. The walk starts directly opposite Cowan railway station, and heads down a wide firetrail that roughly follows the Old Pacific Highway.

After 600m we veer right, off the fire trail and onto a narrow bushwalking track, signposted with a small Great North Walk marker. The walk is initially pretty flat, with some interesting sandstone caves and overhangs.

After about 2.4km the track descends into a valley, past a sandstone cliff and around a giant boulder, before crossing Joe Crafts Creek.

There’s the occasional view toward Berowra Heights as the track follows the ridge, passing next to the Berowra Reserve campground (one of the many Great North Walk campsites). It’s a nice campsite, but as with many other GNW campsites on ridges, there’s no water nearby… Not long afterwards we encounter a large group of Duke of Edinburgh hikers heading to the campground.

The track soon starts to descend, passing through a cleft in a large sandstone boulder as it negotiates a path through a small cliff.

There’s some fairly steep sections, with iron rungs in the sandstone to assist with the descent down the side of the ridge.

At the bottom of the ridge is a small, unnamed creek which has a trickle of water. It would be a nice spot for a break, but we are running a bit late and keen to get to Berowra Waters for lunch.

The track ascends again after the creek, and there’s a nice view of our lunch destination below from the ridge above Berowra Creek.

Then we’re descending again to Berowra Creek, a short but steep section down to the water. We follow the creek for just under a kilometre until we reach the Berowra Waters car ferry, which will take us across Berowra Creek.

We’ve allowed enough time on our little side-trip to enjoy a BBQ lunch at the Berowra Waters picnic area. If anyone is really too tired to continue, there’s an option for them to stop here and go home by car. However, all the Cubs have enough energy left to continue the walk, and after an hour we hit the road (track?) again.

The track continues along Berowra Creek for a while, and is initially easy walking.

But, it doesn’t take too long before we start climbing again, with steps hewn into the sandstone taking us past an impressive rock overhang.

The Cubs are starting to get tired as we climb up the spur to the firetrail along the ridge, and frequent breaks are required!

We finally reach the Berkely Trail (firetrail) and there’s a renewed burst of energy as the Cubs sense the end of the walk is in sight!

There’s a short break and photo-stop at the Naa Badu Lookout, which provides a view up Berowra Creek. It’s not as picturesque when it’s low tide, with more mudbank than water visible!

A last section of narrow bushwalking track, the Crowley Trail, takes us up a small spur to the end of the track near the junction of Crowley Road and Berowra Waters Road. Now it’s just the home stretch to Berowra railway station!

It’s been a great walk, and the Cubs have (mostly) enjoyed it – although there will be a few sore legs tomorrow! While 14km is not a huge distance, this is one of the more challenging sections of the Great North Walk, with many valleys to traverse and (steep) ridges to climb.